1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to integrated circuits, and more particularly but not exclusively to methods and apparatus for testing integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Background Art
Probe cards are used in the testing of integrated circuits by providing an interface between the pads of a bare die or chip and the test equipment. Most probe cards are configured with probe pins that have tips including hard materials so that they can be repeatedly used to test different chips. Typical probe cards are commonly configured to be connected to only one chip at a time. So, where a wafer may contain hundreds of individual chips, only one chip location at a time could be tested using this approach.
Another disadvantage of this conventional approach is that the wafer itself typically receives some damage from the probe tip touch down. If there is substantial misalignment, some chips can be destroyed in this way.